Worst Enemy, Best Friend
by Go-Colts
Summary: Lex Luthor has finally been cornered for the countless crimes he has committed. Memories of better days run through Superman's mind, as he struggles to discover if he's now Clark Kent from Smallville or Superman.


A/N—Please read and review. I'm not sure if I'll stick to writing Smallville or not, but feedback is appreciated.

**Worst Enemy, Best Friend**

The moderate, breezy wind serenely blew across the majestic landscape. A beautiful, secluded field made its way up to a rocky knoll. Abruptly, the rocky knoll stopped at the edge of a deep but majestic canyon. One could seemingly look out for miles upon miles across the top of the chasm; one could also look down and see no end in the seemingly endless abyss. The hot, red sunlight beat down on a single man as he just stared at nothing but thought about everything. The whole scene was picturesque, like something you'd find on a postcard. To some, it may have seemed like a historic landmark or some miracle of nature.

However, this place was by no means a public display of natural beauty; this was one of Lex Luthor's few places of solitude. Scattered across the globe, these "safe-houses" were by no means the ordinary person's perception of a safe house. Instead of a high security, enclosed steel slab of technological innovations that would seem so fitting for Lex, his "safe-house" at the moment was rather an isolated island offset from the rest of mankind. It was open and expansive, and no one would expect this to be the place he was hiding. After all, he had managed to keep the location off of every map in the country, and there was an expansive cloaking barrier that made the island just look like it was part of the ocean from the vantage point of those in the sky. No one would ever find him here. Or at least he thought.

The sound of an approaching figure took Lex by surprise. _Impossible; no one knows about this place._ He turned around and came face to face with someone he had encountered many times, too many for his own liking.

"Superman," Lex said scathingly. His outright rage turned to resignation when he realized it was over. He had lost, and he was going to go to jail for the rest of his life, which he didn't estimate to be for very long, just like his father. In the end, his crimes had finally caught up to him in the form of Superman, who held Lex's life in his hands. "Go ahead. What are you waiting for?" Lex said in exasperation. He calmly waited for Superman to pick him up and take him to justice, but there was no movement from the man of steel.

Lifting his head up, Lex stared deeply into Superman's cold eyes, and for a split second he could have sworn he saw sadness; yet, there was something even deeper in those eyes, something so familiar. The island was hauntingly silent, the only sound coming from the soft breeze that blew against the skin of the two rivals staring into each other's eyes.

Inexplicably, everything hit Lex right there and then. He wanted to smack himself for never seeing it before, when the answer was just staring him right in the face. All the times Superman seemed to know just where to find him, just what his weaknesses were. He had always wondered how Superman knew so much about him, from his unwritten past to his ambitious future, before they had even seen each other more than twice. Now it seemed so obvious that he just wanted to hit himself for not seeing it sooner.

"Clark?" The wind stopped blowing, as if nature itself had stopped to listen to what these two had to say to each other. The grass stood still, the clouds didn't move. Superman's eyes just bore into him before he finally, mercifully, opened his mouth.

"Lex Luthor, I've come to take you to justice on account of grand embezzlement, illegal experiments, black market dealings, selling weapons to terrorists, and murder." Lex brushed all the charges off as he just stared at his longtime foe.

"Clark, is that you?" He only got silence in return, but as he studied the seemingly ageless man of steel, he saw the undeniable resemblance. Coupled with the eccentricity of his past, he could only give out an ironic laugh. "Of course, all those unexplainable events. In the car crash. I did hit you, didn't I? After all the times you denied it, I did hit you with my Porsche at sixty miles an hour. You were the one who tore off the top of my car. You were the blur I saw in the museum security tape…" Lex rambled on and on to Superman, but it was actually more to himself. "…and all my suspicions about you were true. When you saved my life so many times, I couldn't understand how you were always there. I had my suspicions, sure, but this?"

He gave out another ironic laugh. "But Clark," Lex stared unwaveringly into Clark's eyes. "The one thing that has always held true for me is that you are my best friend. I'm dying, Clark. My constant exposure to the Kryptonite has given me an incurable disease. Don't let me die in jail," Lex pleaded.

Superman stared back emotionlessly, analyzing Lex as he spoke. _'No body temperature fluctuations. Wave length constant. No dilation of pupils. Heart rate steady. Blood pressure stable.'_ Realization hit Superman, no, hit Clark as his cold, Superman eyes became those of a naïve teenager back in Smallville. _'He's telling the truth.'_

"Lex," was all Clark could utter. It was the only word he needed to say; best friends don't always need words to communicate. And it wasn't the word he said, but the way he said it. As the two stood locked in each other's eyes, Lex relaxed and gave a small smile. Clark returned it somewhat, but it was a conflicted smile. They both knew what was going to happen, and acceptance was the only way. Clark Kent looked at Lex one last time before he zoomed off to return to his native land. By the next day, all evidence of Lex's crimes would be gone. Lex stared after Clark as he broke the sound barrier and was still accelerating. He took one last glance before he spoke into the wind, knowing that Clark would hear.

"Though Superman may be my worst enemy, you, Clark, will always be my best friend."

A/N--This didn't end the way I had originally planned it, but I started this at eleven at night and didn't want to sleep any later than around 12, so I'm just going to post this. Please read and review!


End file.
